Search form

Search form

How managers go about measuring performance is a proper focus of attention, but so is the why. "My belief is that the why is driven by innovation," writes Michael Echols. "Innovation is a priority for nearly every management team today. It is critical to future competitiveness."

Related Summaries

People tend to communicate what they wish to get done, but during speeches, that doesn't work as well as explaining why you want to accomplish something, Stephanie Scotti writes. "People will respond to your core message when they can understand the thoughts, reasons and beliefs behind it," she argues.

The perfect school scenario, in which all students behave and perform ideally, is likely unattainable in education, asserts educator Jim Dillon. In this blog post, Dillon suggests that teachers can get closer to ideal by focusing on the "why," which is necessary to drive teaching and learning and gives meaning and purpose to teachers and their students.

Too often, company owners flit from one idea to the next without pausing to consider their reasoning for doing what they are doing, writes Josh Patrick of Stage 2 Planning Partners. For this reason, you should ask yourself "why" before implementing a new initiative. "When we get to the core reason of why we are doing something, we often decide to change our approach," he notes.

In the current business climate, communicating your brand's story is essential to attracting customers, Joanna Lord writes. "One of the best things a company can do is be transparent about why it is doing what it does," she writes. It's also important to feature your story of "why" prominently on your website and to make it easy to share via social media.

Bryan Gernert, CEO of Resonate Networks, explains the growing importance of psychographics to online marketing to help advertisers understand the rationale behind user clicks. "We call what we do attitudinal targeting -- we deliver audiences based on their values, beliefs and attitudes, not just demographics," Gernert said.